It's hard to differentiate between wood baseball bats. They are, after all, trees. There is something to be said of the effectiveness of the billet the bat is made from, the very best billets go to the pro players. It is almost impossible for a consumer to get that kind of wood bat, even if companies say they did. However, there are a handful of wood bat companies that produce fine wood bats, and there are a few, due to their distribution, price, customer service and quality, we think are the best.
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Wood Bat Terminology
While you’re out shopping for the best wood bat, you’ll need to understand the terminology of a wood bat. Basically, there are six elements to the anatomy of a wood bat.
- Knob: The knob is the part of the bat that your bottom hand rests upon. There are a significant number of bat knob types and this should be a major point of emphasis in your purchase.
- The width of the grip matters too. The ticker the grip the less chance of breaking, but also the more difficult the bat becomes to swing.
- The Taper is the connection between the barrel and the grip and the speed at which the taper occurs is the major difference in bat model turns. A faster taper means a heavier bat but a thicker barrel and more chances to square something up.
- The Barrel is the part of the bat where the ball is supposed to hit the bat. Barrel max diameters are limited to 2 5/8 of an inch but many bat model turns never even make it to the max because they are trying to keep the swing weight down.
- The end cap or end cup is the shape of the end of the bat. Some are cupped deep to help bring down swing weight, some are full for maximum power to the ball at impact.
Understanding Wood Bat Turns
Generally, wood bat turn models get thicker as the number gets higher. So, a 243 is overall thinner than a 271. A 110 is bigger than a 72.
However, as you’ll quickly learn, many wood bat companies have modeled a specific turn after a specific player. Marucci, for example, has an AP5, which is named after Albert Pujols and his jersey #5. The AP5 is a big bat, like the 243, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that. So, while paying attention to the turn number is helpful, a bat company’s desire to distinguish itself with a popular pro name has made it more difficult to know which is which.
